[Liberty's Gal]

Before everyone gets super upset this post is a bit tic but I think Denali has the horse version of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

There is something about Denali I have never seen in a horse before and is hard for me to explain.

He came to me very green broke. He just finished up his 4th month of dressage training. All in all he is a good boy. No bad manners. No buck, rear, bite, dodge etc. He can be a little spooky but I think that is his age and lack of experience.

This week my trainer is out of town and I am on "duty." I have been having some alone time with Denali where I am lunging him, just he and I. I am actually having a really good time bonding with him but I really think his brain is a little "off", wired a little differently maybe.

He will go into these little "manic" episodes where he rushes around, spooks like crazy at nothing, gets really tense. Then he snaps out of it, really relaxes and goes great. Then back to manic. Then relax. Repeat again and again throughout the session.

He does it undersaddle too.

It seems like the best "cure" is to change things up on him. Change direction, change gait whatever. Asking for "more" (ie more focus) just seems to make it worse.

All in all he is a very happy boy. He seems to like work and really tries his heart out to the best of his ability right now.

Maybe this is a phase he will out grow. Maybe it is just his greenness?

It will be interesting to see how showing goes. Either he will like the different stimulation of the shows or he will get really manic from it. We will see.

Any thoughts?

[codyntampa]

It could just be that hes green, but I would also really focus on whats going on when he goes into these "episodes" Is it in a certain direction when hes bent a certain way, at a certain gait, etc. There could be an underlying issue with some pain somewhere that could cause it. Have you checked your saddle fit at all? He could just be bored too, try to change up your work a lot.

[Vix]

How old is he? I'd be willing to bet its just because he is green.

I know we say around the barn that my girl has the shortest attention span ever. But she's only two and a half.

[wyldterv]

He's being a normal BORED Arabian... seriously, when Arabs get bored they LOOK for things to 'do' to make themselves NOT bored any longer.... You generally don't want to school the same thing more then a few minutes at a time or more then a few times in a row because they go 'yah, yah, I GET it, Now let's see what can catch my interest instead'... and that's when you get the "OMG did you SEE that REALLY HORRIBLE SCARY SHADOW MONSTER IN THE RIGHT NORTH CORNER OF THE ARENA THAT I JUST NOW NOTICED?????"

Maturing may or may NOT dimish this, I find that the best thing to do is engage their brains fully so they don't have time to think outside the box

[MorabPaint]

A lot of horses find "other" things to do if you don't keep them busy. My morab, and actually lot of other greener or hotter horses I have ridden do this. Horse like this need to be challenged constantly and they need to be kept busy. they get bored and their mind wanders...not because of anything wrong with them, they are kjust the faster thinking horses. Arabs are very inclined to do this stuff because they are really smart, energetic and eager to work, and please.so they just kind of go crazy if you aren't giving them what they need or want.

Turn them, leg yeild, bend them. one rein stop, it really doesn't matter what you do...ground poles even work, as long as their minds are kept busy with the tasks at hand....then he wont come up with his own "tasks" that are not in your plans.

[Liberty's Gal]

Originally Posted by wyldterv

He's being a normal BORED Arabian... seriously, when Arabs get bored they LOOK for things to 'do' to make themselves NOT bored any longer.... You generally don't want to school the same thing more then a few minutes at a time or more then a few times in a row because they go 'yah, yah, I GET it, Now let's see what can catch my interest instead'... and that's when you get the "OMG did you SEE that REALLY HORRIBLE SCARY SHADOW MONSTER IN THE RIGHT NORTH CORNER OF THE ARENA THAT I JUST NOW NOTICED?????"

Maturing may or may NOT dimish this, I find that the best thing to do is engage their brains fully so they don't have time to think outside the box

So my horse isn't crazy. He's just being an Arab and he is telling me he is bored?

That actually makes so much sense because he gets really worked up in the same arena that he has been in for the last 4 months where absolutely nothing has changed...

Good to know.

Can anyone give me tips about how to keep lunging fresh and interesting for him? He still needs lunge work to build his top line and his canter is still challenged but I guess he is probably getting really bored with it which is why he is getting a little "manic". What can I add in to keep it fresh for him?

[Berlunz]

Originally Posted by wyldterv

He's being a normal BORED Arabian... seriously, when Arabs get bored they LOOK for things to 'do' to make themselves NOT bored any longer.... You generally don't want to school the same thing more then a few minutes at a time or more then a few times in a row because they go 'yah, yah, I GET it, Now let's see what can catch my interest instead'... and that's when you get the "OMG did you SEE that REALLY HORRIBLE SCARY SHADOW MONSTER IN THE RIGHT NORTH CORNER OF THE ARENA THAT I JUST NOW NOTICED?????"

haha thats so funny. My horse is 1/4 arab and he has what I call "Arab episodes" where he will just be sitting there doing nothing then all the sudden decides something is going to eat him and freak out. Its cute and sometimes a little funny unless he is tied to a trailer or I am riding him. Had it happen at a show, was sitting tied to the trailer good as gold then he suddenly freaked out and set back, then reared forward into the trailer. Nothing was around to spook him and he had food and water, I guess he just decided he was bored and all the sudden the ground was scary and he had to get away from it by leaping onto the trailer .

Try setting up poles on the ground in the round pen for him to walk and trot over. Switch around the poles a bit when he gets bored. If you have a trail arena do trail in hand at the walk or jog to keep him occupied. If he starts having an episode while lunging have him stop or change directions to keep his attention.

[MorabPaint]

Do you lunge in an arena, or round pen. If you are in a round pen, there are a lot of interesting things you can do...like leanring to change directions without stopping, try ground amnners stuff too.

[horseguy]

Arabians have a reputation. You don’t see any on a polo field in the US. A friend of mine, a top polo horse trainer, started to teach one to play polo on a bet. After three weeks he just paid off the bet because it was easier.

A few years after that someone organized a trip to Egypt to play polo at he Alexandria Polo Club, which apparently is a pretty nice club. I didn’t go, but another friend of mine did, and when he returned I was shocked to hear that all the horses there were Arabians. Further more he told me they were great at the game.

Long story short, it’s always 100 degrees there and the sun beats down all the time. It cooks their brains. So, as it turns out, the Arabians are the only horse that can stay focused in such intense unrelenting heat. That was the day I finally “got” Arabians. They are bred for a climate much different than ours. They are like the opposite of polar bears that sleep all ay at the zoo because it is too warm for them.

Solution: get a hairdryer with a real long cord, put it on high, and ride with it pointed right at the top of your horse’s head. This will simulate the intense Egyptian sun… just kidding. My not so humorous answer is to examine why you have an Arabian. Every breed is not for every rider. Also, if you continue, work with someone who knows the breed.

[wyldterv]

Originally Posted by horseguy

Arabians have a reputation. You don’t see any on a polo field in the US.

I better let the 4 guys the drive up from Seattle to play up here weekly know that they are not supposed to be doing so with their 3 PB Arabs and 1 3/4 Arab/ 1/4 TB cross Maybe we don't count as part of the US WAAAAY up here 20 mins from the Canadian border???

Originally Posted by Liberty's Gal

So my horse isn't crazy. He's just being an Arab and he is telling me he is bored?

That actually makes so much sense because he gets really worked up in the same arena that he has been in for the last 4 months where absolutely nothing has changed...

Good to know.

Can anyone give me tips about how to keep lunging fresh and interesting for him? He still needs lunge work to build his top line and his canter is still challenged but I guess he is probably getting really bored with it which is why he is getting a little "manic". What can I add in to keep it fresh for him?

Let's take an example of dogs to help make a comparative analysis:

You a Labrador Retriever working on Obedience for competition and you have a Herding breed (I'll use a Border Collie since more people are more familier with them then my Belgians )... When you are schooling the Lab for work, it's happy willing and ready to please. You sometimes have to school the same thing over and over to help build consistency and perfection in the performance and the Lab is still Happy, willing and Ready to please and not usually prone to bordom because every time you revisit the exercise the Lab is concentrating on getting it done right.

THEN you go and get yourself a Border Collie to work on obedience for competition because you want a dog that is more of a Ferrari to work with, more drive (response level to stimulus and energy levels) to got those really snappy heal patterns and recalls down with lots of precision and flash.

You start schooling the same exercises daily over and over just like you did with your Happy, willing Lab.... BUT... after about the 3rd or 4th day in a row of this your BC starts blowing you off on the recall or flips his hip out when healing instead of staying even with you... The BC really starts to look like crud and you're very confused???? What is WRONG with this crazy dog????

Well that BC was bored about the 3rd run through of the same exercise on teh FIRST day you did it, let alone on the 4th and starts to look for ways to make the 'game' of obedience more 'fun'.

A Lab is more like a QH/Stockhorse breed... Bred to be less physically and emotionally reactive to things and bred to be more tolerant of repetative actions (spend some time in a duck blind some cold fall/winter day, not a lot going on alwyas, lol, ) Like a Lab that must be able to learn but willing to do the job with full direction of the human (you shoot a goose and it goes down and teh dog does not see where, the dog must accept you directing it on a 'blind' retrieve and not think for itself) a good working QH has to have the temperament to listen to what the rider wants at all times and be patient and willing and generally not thinking constantly for themselves.

NOW take an BC, it's bred to think very quickly on it's feet and while it DOES need to work closely with it's handler, there are times it's better for the job of bringing the stock from A to B, if the BC blows off the human's commands for a momment to get the stock under better control. They are bred to be more acutely aware of their surroundings, and are more of a 'thinking' breed. The Arabian is the BC of the horse world.

It is not that the Lab or the QH are not as intelligent as the Arabian or the BC. but the Lab and the QH are bred to be less drive then the BC or Arabian and less thinking for themselves constantly. The Lab and the QH are better suited to consistent repetative schooling (with in reason, they too will get bored and act out, usually by getting sour about things) then the BC or the Arabian.

When training a more drivy animal, you have to be more inventive and keep things switching up (think a ton of various transistions and direction changes and ground poles when lunging ) so the animal isn't going "yah, yah, I got it, now I'm going to do what I want to do" Instead their brain is engaged going "NOW what is the crazy owner going to ask me to do next" and the focus better on YOU and what YOU want